


we sing it proudly

by iridescentOracle (iridescentOwl)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, PURE UNADULTERATED UNASHAMED FLUFF, also jack plays piano, like that's it that's all this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 11:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3325589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iridescentOwl/pseuds/iridescentOracle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Bitty does not believe in ghosts.</p><p>Which leaves him with 'someone broke into the Haus to play piano or listen to piano music in the attic' and 'someone who said they wouldn’t be here today was either lying or, like Bitty himself, mistaken' as the only answers to why he can hear the sound of piano music drifting down the stairs."</p><p>Jack plays piano. It's a secret, and then Bitty finds out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we sing it proudly

Bitty is alone in the Haus, which makes it the perfect time to go poke around in the attic to see what’s up there.

He’s wanted to for a while, but somehow it’s just never happened. Right now, however, he has finished his homework, done all the reading for the next several days, straightened up his room, and he just made a grocery run two days ago so he’s still doing fine on baking supplies, even with the batch of muffins he just put in the oven.

* * *

Bitty does not believe in ghosts.

Which leaves him with “someone broke into the Haus to play piano or listen to piano music in the attic” and “someone who said they wouldn’t be here today was either lying or, like Bitty himself, mistaken” as the only answers to why he can hear the sound of piano music drifting down the stairs.

And—is that _Sara Bareilles_?

He listens for a minute, one foot still on the stairs, and sure enough, his initial startled identification was correct: that’s definitely “Brave” being played, whether on a computer, iPod, or actual piano located in the attic.

But who—?

Bitty ventures quietly up the stairs just far enough to see Jack sitting at an old piano, facing away from Bitty. Bitty stays where he is as Jack flips to the middle of a binder full of sheet music, apparently looking for something. Judging by his sound of frustration, Jack goes too far, but then must decide to go with it, as he puts the binder back on the piano still open to that spot and starts to play.

This time it takes Bitty a few seconds to recognize the song, though that’s as much from the incongruity as anything; he’s heard it enough times—who hasn’t?—though not in a while.

Jack is playing a piano cover of a Taylor Swift song. And not just any Taylor Swift song—“Love Story”. Of all the things Bitty had never seen coming, Jack playing piano was high on the list. Jack playing _Taylor Swift_ on the piano? might have topped it.

Bitty goes slowly back down the stairs, not wanting to disturb Jack. He isn’t sure why Jack had waited until everyone else was gone (except Bitty, but even he had been surprised at how quickly the study session wrapped up) to come play, but avoiding the inevitable chirps from their Hausmates seems both likely and entirely reasonable, and Bitty isn’t going to mess that up.

He sits quietly at the foot of the stairs, enjoying the moment; when the song ends, he looks upstairs warily, ready to duck out of sight if Jack is done playing, but after a minute the music starts again. Katy Perry, this time—“Firework”. The song after that, Bitty covers his mouth with his hand to keep from laughing— _Jack Zimmermann_ is playing “Call Me Maybe”. And it sounds fantastic.

When the next song is Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”, Bitty starts to notice a pattern. With the exception of “Love Story”, all the songs so far have been ones Bitty was singing and/or listening to in the kitchen recently, and while that one in particular hadn’t come up, he _had_ had a couple Taylor Swift songs on those playlists.

The next song is Taylor Swift again, and with it Bitty’s suspicions are confirmed: “New Romantics", unlike ”Love Story”, had been a recent favorite.

The song after that, however, breaks the pattern, and it’s a minute or two before he can place it; in contrast to the pop songs, this one isn’t a song Jack’s heard Bitty singing.

It’s the other way around, actually—of all things, Jack is playing “Georgia On My Mind”.

Bitty closed his eyes at some point—he’s not entirely sure when—but it takes him a moment to realize the pause after the end of the song seems longer than before, and when he finally opens them and turns his head slowly to the right, his sudden sense of foreboding is proven valid: Jack is standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at Bitty with his best _I-am-an-emotionless-hockey-bot expression_ , only his faint blush giving him away.

"Um. Bittle. I thought. you were studying."

"…Hi, Jack. I was, but we finished way faster than we thought we would, so I came back here. I was planning to explore the attic, since I’ve never been up there, and then I heard you playing and I didn’t want to disturb you. And you’re really good! I mean, I know you know that, of course, but I didn’t know you played and then you were playing some of my favorites and I didn’t know you even remembered half of those but you knew them really well and I just sort of stayed to listen."

Jack’s face remains expressionless, but Bitty is fairly sure his cheeks are significantly more flushed than a minute ago, and Bitty gives in, trying to see if he can make Jack blush harder.

"Really, Jack, you sounded amazing! How long have you been playing? When do you practice? How have I not _heard_ you playing before, and why? You’re so good and you know so many songs I like and I thought you’d never heard half of them before I started playing them while we studied together last semester so did you already have the sheet music and just not want to admit it, or did you only get them after that?”

Bitty pauses for breath, smiling, and notes that yes, apparently being sincerely complimented _can_ make Jack turn bright pink. Just as he opens his mouth, encouraged by a mischievous urge to get Jack back for all his chirping last week, they hear the door slamming open and the moment is broken.

* * *

It’s barely a week later ( _five days_ , says some part of his brain cheerily; he tells it sweetly to be quiet) that Bitty finds himself telling Ransom that really, he appreciates the offer, but he’s got homework to finish and might take the opportunity to film a new episode for his vlog without the usual risk of chatter in the background while everyone else is out. Or napping, he adds as an afterthought, as Jack had headed to his room a few minutes before to do just that.

Bitty makes himself wait five minutes after Ransom and Holster finally leave, to make sure nobody is going to come back in search of something they forgot, before heading for the stairs to the attic. He sits down, leaning back against the wall, and closes his eyes just as he hears the first notes of what turns out to be Bastille’s “Pompeii”.

Bitty sits there quietly for half an hour, enjoying the private concert, until he finally hears Jack pushing back the piano bench and heading for the stairs, at which point he slips away to his room. He genuinely does try to film an episode, but finds it too hard to stop thinking about the music and gives up after three consecutive takes end in him smiling at some point on the wall, or toy on his desk, without really seeing it there.

Neither of them mentions it, to anyone else (as far as Bitty knows) or to each other, but Bitty does make a point of listening more to songs he’s heard Jack play over the next few days, and repeatedly to a couple particular favorites he hasn’t yet.

And sure enough, the next time it happens, a little more than a week later, Jack is still clearly learning Fall Out Boy’s “Immortals”, but he plays it nonetheless. Bitty sits at the top of the stairs this time. He waits for Jack when it’s over, smiling up at him as they walk down the stairs side-by-side, and Jack smiles back, just a little.

* * *

They go on like that for maybe a month or so; now that they’re both trying, they manage to be the only ones in the Haus every few days, somehow never going more than a week without finding themselves left alone, and every time, Jack plays piano for Bitty.

* * *

And then, one day, they’re walking down the stairs, knowing the first of their friends will be back in the next little while, when with no warning, Jack grabs Bitty’s hand. Bitty stops, startled, but before he can start walking again, Jack’s moved so he’s standing in front of Bitty, one foot on each of the next two stairs down, which _just_ cancels out their height difference, and so they’re staring straight at each other. Bitty is just opening his mouth to ask if everything is okay when suddenly Jack is—

— _oh_

—oh

—okay then

Bitty is very confused, didn’t—hadn’t he heard—he thought—well. And yet somehow everything seems to be making perfect sense and falling into place, and it feels like anything that isn’t yet will soon. And sure enough, they end up in Jack’s room—still holding hands—where they talk things out (and kiss more).

They lose track of time, and so both of them are startled when Shitty walks past, stops just beyond Jack’s (open) door, then steps backwards and leans around the doorway.

Well, okay, so maybe they were too distracted to notice that part, but could anyone really blame them?

The point is that it’s Shitty yelling _fucking FINALLY_ that actually gets their attention, leaving them with just enough time to pull apart and blink at him before the rest of the Haus is running upstairs to see what’s going on and _when did everyone get back?_

Jack and Bitty are both bright pink and Bitty’s hair is a _mess_ , which helps neither of them in regaining their composure in the slightest. Nor does the discovery that apparently _literally everyone else_ had figured out there was something going on, and that the frequent total-emptiness of the Haus was in fact entirely deliberately arranged in order to speed things up.

* * *

The chirping is swift and merciless.

* * *

Not all of it is entirely from without, however: most of it, certainly, is from their friends, but a not-insignificant number of the chirps they find themselves dealing with are from each other. Jack has discovered a fondness for playing with Bitty’s hair, which swiftly becomes _very_ distracting, as Jack is well aware, but Bitty finds himself able to repay it by humming snippets of various songs Jack continues to attempt to maintain a pretense of not remembering.

All in all, their friends are slightly confused by much of their interactions over the next few weeks, but the amusement more than makes up for it.

**Author's Note:**

> another prompt fill cross-prompted from tumblr:  
> "I have this really intense headcanon that Jack plays piano??? ~ dragons-egg"
> 
> sarah ([mutuisanimis](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mutuisanimis)) continues to be both a fantastic beta and a generally wonderful person.
> 
> title from Taylor Swift's "New Romantics" because A) tell me Bitty doesn't love it, I dare you, B) _I_ really love it, and C) I'm kinda considering just titling any and all fics i end up writing in this fandom with taylor swift lyrics bc apparently writing fic is a thing i do now! who knew? not me! i'm just kinda sitting here staring at my screen wondering what happened to my life.


End file.
